1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to an electrical connector assembly for connecting two printed circuit boards.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known that a board-to-board connector assembly is widely used for connecting two printed circuit boards (PCBs) together and includes a plug connector mounted on a PCB and a receptacle connector mounted on another PCB and electrically connected with the plug connector.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,916 discloses a connector assembly including a plug connector and a receptacle connector, the plug connector has an elongated first housing and a plurality of first contacts assembled to the first housing, a receptacle connector has a second housing with a space for receiving the plug connector and a plurality of second contacts fixed in the second housing. Each of the first contact and the second contact is formed with a soldering portion for being soldered to corresponding printed circuit boards, a retaining portion and a contacting portion. The retaining portion of the second contact is in an inverse U-shape completely abutting the second housing. However, the insertion direction of the retaining portions is same as the insertion of the plug connector into the receptacle connector, so when the plug connector is pulled out from the receptacle connector, the retaining portions of the second contacts may also be pulled along the same direction, and that will lead to unreliable retaining of second contacts and affect the engaging between the second contacts and the first contacts. And once the retaining portions are not retained, the soldering portions will also be pulled from the print circuit board. Otherwise, the contacting portion transversely extends for a certain distance from an end of the U-shaped retaining portion and then upwardly, since the U-shaped retaining portion occupy a certain transverse space, a transverse dimension of the connecting porting is limited and may not has enough elasticity.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication. No 2003-323925 discloses another connector assembly including a plug connector and a receptacle connector. The receptacle connector has female contacts, each having a vertical portion, an M-shaped extending portion transversely extending from the vertical portion with a contacting portion in an end and a retaining portion extending from the vertical portion. However, since the retaining portion is upon the extending portion, that will increases a height of the female contact and the receptacle connector.
Hence, am improved connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the related art.